Lucy Dee, the 48-year-old mother of five who died Monday of wounds sustained in a Palestinian terror attack last week, donated her organs and was able to save the lives of five other people.
Dee and her daughters were driving on a road in the Jordan Valley on a family trip to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee on Friday when they were ambushed by Palestinian terrorists. Dee’s daughters Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, were killed in the attack.
As Breitbart News reported:
The members of the Dee family were on a holiday drive through northern Samaria to visit the city of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee when gunmen ambushed their car, forcing it off the road and then raking it with bullets.
Their anguished father, Rabbi Leo Dee, delivered a heart-wrenching eulogy calling for national unity in a time of division, and urging those present to focus on gratitude for what they had, rather than what they had lost.
Rina Dee, 48, held on for three days before succumbing to her wounds:
Lucy Dee’s death was met with anguish and outrage among Israelis, who are suffering from a wave of terror attacks by Palestinian groups — not just within the country, but in Gaza to the west and Lebanon to the north.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted: “In the name of all citizens of Israel, I sent condolences from the bottom of my heart to the Dee family on the passing of the mother of the family, Leah (Lucy) Dee, of blessed memory, who was murdered in the severe terror attack in the [Jordan] Valley last Friday, together with her two daughters, Maia and Rina, of blessed memory.”
Dee was laid to rest on Tuesday — just two days after her daughters were buried in another emotional funeral.
On Tuesday, the Times of Israel reported, doctors and Dee’s husband announced her organ donation:
The organs of terror victim Lucy Dee were transplanted Tuesday hours before her funeral, saving the lives of five people, the National Transplant Center said. Her widower, Rabbi Leo Dee, explained the decision by surviving family members to donate the organs — a practice that some Orthodox Jews consider forbidden by Jewish law.
…
“Our rabbinical authority had checked out the halachot [Jewish laws] and explained to me that in her condition, it was perfectly acceptable — actually a mitzvah [religious commandment]. Only the bones and tendons should not be donated, and everything else that is lifesaving should be given,” he said.
…
Dee’s heart went to a 51-year-old woman, her liver to a 25-year-old man, and her kidneys to two men — one in his late 30s and one in his late 50s. Her lungs were transplanted into a 58-year-old woman at Sheba. Her corneas were also harvested and will go to recipients at a later date.
Maia Dee had filled out her organ donor card, but her organs could not be used because of her manner of death.
Israelis continue to mourn as they prepare for the end of the Passover holiday, and ongoing attacks — both from Palestinian terrorists within Israel, and from Iranian proxies on Israel’s borders in Gaza and Lebanon.
The perpetrators of the attack on the Dee family have not yet been arrested, though their vehicle was found.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.